How the Kostroma police make money out of thin air

At the beginning of September 2010, officers of the Department of Economic Crimes detained Vitaly Krasnoshapka, the founder of the public organization "Block Post", which is engaged in the return of bank commissions illegally paid by citizens.

Today there is no longer any doubt that this “attack” was ordered and, most likely, it was organized at the request of the management of Sovcombank, which was concerned about the organization’s too active activities. There is also no doubt that the police officers themselves planned the so-called “crime”, they themselves “identified” and tried to “solve” it.

A cunning plan was drawn up to organize a meeting between Vitaly Krasnoshapka and the deputy manager of Sovcombank. He had to propose to the chairman of the public organization to make a deal: Blok-Post would stop suing the bank, but in return it was ready to settle all claims of its clients out of court. The “bribery” was supposed to be 3 million rubles transferred by the bank to the organization’s current account.

However, the police did not take into account a number of important points. Firstly, the day of the “special operation” fell on a Saturday, when credits to the current accounts of legal entities are not made. However, under pressure from the police, the deputy manager of the bank still had to break the law and deposit money into the current account of a public organization opened in the same bank.

Only one thing confused the investigators: a criminal case had been opened for illegal receipt of funds, but the money itself was not included in the case materials. Where can I get them? The answer is obvious - in the bank. On September 19, 2010, the investigator issues a seizure order, recognizes the funds as material evidence in the case and transfers them for safekeeping... back to the bank.

Since funds in current accounts can only be seized by a court decision, on November 28, 2011, judge of the Sverdlovsk District Court Glushkov recognized the so-called “seizure” of non-cash money as illegal and obliges the investigator to eliminate the violations. The investigation finds nothing better than to ignore the court order for 5 months. On April 11, 2012, Judge Zagarov recognized the investigator’s inaction in failure to comply with the previous court order as illegal and again demanded that the violations be eliminated.

The investigator clearly did not like the prospect of being brought to criminal liability for malicious failure to comply with court decisions, but how to return money that exists only in accounting documents? A solution was found. The person who applied to initiate a criminal case wrote a receipt to the investigator indicating that he had received 3 million rubles from the criminal case materials.

On June 9, 2012, Judge Glushkov recognized the change of ownership of material evidence in the case as illegal and obliges the investigator to eliminate violations. The investigation finds itself in a stalemate. It turns out that on paper 3 million rubles were given to a third party and now they need to be returned, but how can this be done if cash initially did not exist at all?

And again a way out was found. The Kostroma Regional Court cancels the lawful decision of the Sverdlovsk Court and sends the case for consideration by a new judicial panel. Judge Kadochnikova has no choice but to essentially legitimize the fact of the investigator’s theft of the public association’s property, and, going beyond the limits of her competence, motivate the decision by the absence of a written loan agreement between the public association and the person who deposited funds into the current account.

The danger of this judicial precedent is that the court legalized the illegal seizure of funds from bank accounts by the police. In fact, now in Kostroma, by decision of the police, funds can be seized from the account of any legal entity or individual, issued to an unknown person, and the criminal court will confirm the legality of such an operation.

There is only one piece of advice left to give: keep your money in banks that Kostroma police officers and investigators cannot reach.

PS The other day it became known that the decision to terminate the criminal case was once again canceled by prosecutor Sheshin. He ordered the investigator to apply to the court with a petition to seize the funds, which the investigator illegally seized a year ago and managed to give to the customer of the criminal case. Where the investigators will get the next 3 million rubles this time, one can only guess.